The invention generally relates to wind turbines and, more particularly, to a system and method for providing yaw backup to the wind turbines in a wind farm.
Wind turbines are used to generate power by harnessing the wind energy present in the environment. As wind energy is a natural resource, the variations in the wind speed and the wind direction are uncontrollable and induce undesirable loads in the wind turbines. Therefore, a wind turbine includes various wind turbine components such as yaw and pitch motors for minimizing such undesirable loads. Under normal operating conditions, these wind turbine components operate based on power received from the wind turbine or a power grid coupled to the wind turbine.
In some situations where the wind turbines receive information about wind speeds or other conditions that may cause normal operation to be impossible, the wind turbines may suspend their operations and be disconnected from the grid. In such situations, if the wind turbine components do not receive power from the wind turbine or the power grid, wind turbine component operations may be suspended and damage to the wind turbines may result. To avoid the temporary suspension of operation of the wind turbine components, various approaches have been used to provide power to the wind turbine components during the time interval when the operations of the wind turbines are suspended.
Energy storage mediums have been used for providing power to the wind turbine components. However, conventional systems including energy storage mediums provide power to the wind turbine components based on a static mode of operation which may be ineffective in controlling loads induced in the wind turbines by the rapid changes in the wind speed and wind direction. Moreover, the operation of the conventional system leads to early depletion of the stored energy and thus requires large energy storage mediums.
Hence, there is a need for an improved system to address the aforementioned issues.